A clear vision and objectives are a must for social businesses

Arguably all organisations need a clear vision of what they are trying to achieve and objectives to determine how to get there.

This is especially important to social business, and is the ninth key principle.

A vision provides the over riding direction for the business and should drive everything you do.

It could be something like providing all HIV/AIDs sufferers in the Kwa-Zulu Natal with the healthcare they need; or to supply employment for unemployed women in the Khayelitsha township.

Your vision is the reason why your organisation exists and provides the guiding light for everything you do. It provides the focus and direction required to ensure that you do not deviate from the path you have set.

Once you have a clear vision, you should set objectives. Objectives provide the stepping stones to realising your vision. Examples of this could be that you will get 100 of the HIV/AIDs sufferers in Kwa-Zulu Natal on the right medication in 2009; or that you will gain employment for 2 unemplyed and unskilled women in Khatelitsha in January 2009.

Objectives should be captured in a way that is easy to understand, communicate, and most importantly, measure. If you can't measure your progress against your objectives then it is very difficult to know when you have achieved them. Having numbers, like the financial value or number of items, as well as dates in your objectives help provide the measurement.

No matter what the size of your organisation, all staff need to know what your vision and objectives are. Create posters and display them round the office, post them on your website and keep repeating them at every opportunity.

In this way your vision and objectives can become second nature to all, and ensure that your whole organisation adheres to this key principle of social business.


Mike.